Research firm Strategy Analytics has announced its smartphone market share numbers for Q3 2012. The numbers show that Samsung Galaxy S III overtook the Apple iPhone 4S to become the world's best selling smartphone for Q3.

Samsung shipped 18 million Galaxy S III smartphones during Q3 of 2012. The quantity of units shipped gave Samsung's smart phone 11% of the smartphone market globally. Strategy Analytics attributes the Galaxy S III's large touchscreen and extensive distribution around the world along with generous operator subsidies as the main reasons for the smartphones success.

Apple shipped 16.2 million iPhone 4S smartphones, giving it second place in the global smartphone market. Much of the reason that the iPhone slipped from the top spot was because consumers were holding off to purchase the anticipated iPhone 5 at the end of Q3. Apple shipped 6 million units of the iPhone 5 in Q3 of 2012 with very little time on market.

The total number of smartphones shipped in Q3 of 2012 added up to 167.8 million.

The Samsung Galaxy S III grew its market share significantly between Q2 of 2012 and Q3 growing from 3.5% to 10.7% of the global market. Comparatively, the iPhone 4S slipped from 12.7% of the market in Q2 of 2012 to 9.7%. The brand-new iPhone 5 grabbed 3.6% of the market.

However, the research firm expects the win for Samsung to be very short-lived. Strategy Analytics says that it expects the iPhone 5 to out ship the Galaxy S III in Q4 2012 allowing the iPhone to regain the title as the world's most popular smartphone.

I dunno. I see your point, but IOS just bores me to tears. Android really is well beyond it at this point and like I said, they are WAY out developing IOS. Android is growing and just hitting its stride... Apple is stagnating and you know it.

You can't possibly think that the S3 outselling the iPhone isn't impressive. With all the other options, with dozens of other models available, one single model outsold the iPhone. That says a lot.

quote: You can't possibly think that the S3 outselling the iPhone isn't impressive. With all the other options, with dozens of other models available, one single model outsold the iPhone. That says a lot.

In one quarter, against a year old device, in a period filled with iPhone 5 rumours and customers waiting, no, it isn't particularly impressive. If they outsold the iPhone 5, that would be impressive.

You act like the iPhone doesn't have to compete with exactly the same phones that the SG3 does. Do you think that just because the other phones are Android that they aren't competing with the iPhone? Or, are you simply saying that Apple has it easy because they're the ones who created a unique selling point in their own ecosystem - something which would increase their achievement, not diminish it?

Lets be real, despite having fewer sales, Apple is raking in 70%+ of the entire smartphone industry profits. Anyone can give devices away at cost (Nexus 7, 4, cheaper Android handsets) - that isn't impressive. The popularity of Android isn't manifested in developer interest because the majority of users who buy Android are on the lower end of the spending spectrum. So what is the point in you boasting about Android outselling iOS? It has no tangible benefit to you at all, and Android isn't even a company, or owned by anyone. Apple owns it just as much as anyone else. If anything, all it means is that Android is the sheeps common choice.

iOS has been more stagnant than Android but that's predominantly because Android had a lot of catching up to do. Perhaps it has taken the lead temporarily but the shake up of directors at Apple may see them taking the software 'battle' back to Google too.

I really don't care about apples profits. I am a consumer not an investor, I care about product and features and the iPhone is falling short, missing too many features and the OS has been bested and left in the dust. No, its Apple that has catching up to do with its OS. I think you already know that.

Yup... If you were an investor and had invested several years ago, Apple is great. If you are a consumer looking for the best products and prices... Not so much. Paying more nad getting less is not good for the consumer. Great for the investor though. ;)

quote: That's all they got, profits and money. Not much else it seems.

quote: I really don't care about apples profits. I am a consumer not an investor, I care about product and features and the iPhone is falling short, missing too many features and the OS has been bested and left in the dust. No, its Apple that has catching up to do with its OS. I think you already know that.

Neither profit or sales have anything to do with the end product. And the advantages / disadvantages of iOS vs Android are debatable.

You say you don't care about apples profit. Well I say I don't care about Samsung's sales.

But ask Samsung what they care more about, sales or profit. They will say profit all day long. As will any company.

So either we talk on a company level at which point profit always wins out. Or we talk as consumers in which case both are irrelevant.

Uh... you brought up profit, not me. I care about features and price like any consumer, and as I said, apple lacks in those areas. I don't care about Samsung either. I am liking Android these days because today, its the best OS with the best phones by far. The new LG opti, and HTC DNA look amazing. A bunch of other 5 inch 1920x1080 models on the way too. And anyone that says IOS6 is better than Jelly bean is a flat out liar. Next year, who knows? But today Android is where its at. That's it and that's all.

The S3 outselling it is impressive, but context in time is important too. It was against an old model, and it wasn't by that big a margin. I do think that Samsung needs to release a new phone quickly though, one that improves battery life and the display. Right now those are the main hardware issues I have with the S3 relative to the iPhone (pentile display and half the battery life browsing with LTE).

As for the OS, the UI not really changing isn't my biggest problem, it is silly skeumorphic designs in some of the apps like calendar and podcasts (reel-to-reel tape, seriously). It is corny as hell, but with Forstall out of the picture and Jony Ive taking over UI design there should be much greater unification with the sleek design of the hardware the software.

And as for things getting stale, since when did a UI updating every year become an important thing? I've been fine with my desktop operating systems being pretty much the same for over a decade, so I get people getting "bored" with phone UIs every year. If swapping UIs more often meant something to me then I'd have already moved my main Windows partition over to Windows 8 (btw, I'm not, haha).

There is no question that Android OS and hardware are both improving quickly, but it is still in catch up mode. Perhaps in another year or two a switch will be worth looking into, but right now the compromises in performance, app selection, display quality, battery life, and build quality are too much for me in order to gain other things (SD card, keyboards, swappable battery).